labor supply tech innovations entrepreneurs gov’t assistance of business domestic market for...
TRANSCRIPT
Labor supply
Tech innovations
Entrepreneurs
Gov’t assistance of business
Domestic market for manuf. goods
American Industrial Growth
Union Pacific (Omaha) going west &
Central Pacific (Sacramento) going
east
Land grants
Promontory Point, Utah (May 1869)
created 4 time zones out of necessity
Transcontinental RR
Economy of scarcity to abundance (Simon Patten)
National brandsChain stores – A&P, Woolworths (nat’l network)
Greater variety & low pricesMail-order Catalogs- Montgomery Ward, Sears &
RoebuckRural areas included in trends & tech
Changing Nature of Economy
Electricity plays major roleMeant “going out” – public places
Amusement parks, movie palaces, vaudeville houses, dance halls, saloons, sports…
Race, class & gender all factors – high brow/low browMen – spectator sports & gambling (baseball #1)Working class leisure
New found time but not $Street camaraderieSaloons –“regulars”–ethnic basis, political connections, dark
vices Movies – 1st true mass enter. medium
“Birth of a Nation” – had real plot (totally racist but elaborate)
Role of “Pragmatic” thinkingEncouraged by DarwinismGov’t promotion of higher ed. – “land grant” institutions
Entertainment & Life’s Extras
Iron/steel industry & rr interrelated
Petroleum- lubricant & then multiple uses
Dawning of auto industry – by 1910 total social influence
Beginning of corporate r&d - corp/univ partnerships
Scientific management – Frederick Taylor
Mass production & assembly line
Corporations- new ventures so costly needed size & capital
corps provide – lure of limited liability
Managerial style – hierarchy of control (middle
management)
Corporate integration – vertical & horizontal
Big Changes
Captains of Industry or Robber Barons
•Carnegie – steel industry – vertical
integration
•Morgan – buys out Carnegie – US Steel(billion
$ comp)
•Rockefeller – Standard Oil – prime ex of
monopoly /horizontal
Trusts shift to holding companies (lots of power in hands of the few)
Corp. size grew, costs cut, complex industrial infrastructure, new mrkts, more jobs, mass production
Hugely controversialUndemocratic or Protestant work ethic on
steroids?Corrupt rise to power or ingenuity of self
made men?Gap bwtn rich & poor growingSeries of recessions blamed on monops.
Who holds the power(and how did he get it)?
Massive influxDomestic – rural migrationsForeign – 1865-1915 huge #s – recruitment of
unskilled Increased ethnic tensions
Vulnerable @ work – conditions & cycles
Centralized control of factory work (no control or connection to product)
Women – threatened social valuesChildren – social ill but laws weak or
bypassed
Workers
Massive immigration (southern & eastern Europe) b/c opportunities
Nativism inspires xenophobic organizations @ all levels
Quality of housing for poor not a concernSouth – former slave quartersCities – tenements (large occupancy & low rent)How the Other Half Lives – Jacob Riis
Urbanization
Public spaces & servicesPublic park as counter to congestion
Frederick Law Olmstead – Central ParkMuseums & libraries – cities as source of
knowledge“City Beautiful” Movement – Euro inspired-
revitalize old sections w/new impressive structuresDaniel Burnham’s “Great White City” (1893
Chicago World’s Fair) – whole-scale redesigning – attempted but not achieved
“Back Bay”–out ward expansion Boston marsh zone neighborhood
Skyscrapers – upward expansion Passenger elevators, steel girder construction,
architectural design
City Planning
CrimeFire – “great fires” destroyed large areas
Less flammable building materialsProfessional fire dept.
Disease close quarter living & working conditions
Indigence Pollution – as related to health issues
Public Health Services (TB, poisonings)*public health as responsibility of fed. gov’t –
forerunner of OSHA (1970)
City Strains
Cowboy – myth vs reality – the
“natural man”
The Frontier (“closed” 1890)
Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis
Democratizing politically & socially
Independence & individualism
Pragmatism
Safety valve
Romanticized West
“Long drives” – east Texas to Chicago – lost a lot herd on the wayChisholm Trail (Abilene, Kansas)
railhead
More land going to ag rather than grazing
Barbed wire (Glidden)
• farm life tough & dangerous• Bonanza farms –
irrigation• Family farms still
dominated• $ needed to irrigate,
use chems & machinery too much for avg fam. – “land monopoly”
Threats to way of lifeBureau of Indian Affairs – generally incompetent War against buffalo – (sport, fads, food & hides, rr devel) -
Almost wiped out 1875Relocations pit tribe vs tribe
Distrust – Sand Creek Massacre (1864) Cheyenne
Outright Hunting – mining & settler conflicts
Little Big Horn (1876) Sioux (Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse)-unity
Chief Joseph (1877) Nez Perce
*Resistance by Ghost Dance-whites retreat, buffalo return
Wounded Knee (1890) Sioux – role of machine guns
Assimilation – Dawes Severalty Act(1887)
Allowed white settlers to buy land so lost land & culture
Had to prove degree of “civilization” to get citizenship
Native Americans
“Do-little” GovernmentRole of the National Government
Interpreted and accepted roles & responsibilities
Stalwarts – Roscoe Conkling, NYHalfbreeds – James Blaine, MEMugwumps – wouldn’t play the “game”– sat the
fence
Party Patronage
Rutherford & Lemonade Lucy Hayes•Removed last Recon. Troops from south
James Garfield•Ohio Halfbreed•Gave majority of patronage jobs to halfbreeds
Chester Arthur•Stalwart•Tried for distance from Stals.•Pendleton Act
James Blaine“Rum, Romanticism and Rebellion”
Grover ClevelandReputation of reform & anti corruptionGets mugwump supportLarge NY Catholic turnout
Election of 1884
Cleveland’s First Term•Frugal & limited gov’t
•Civil service reform
•Vetoed many private pension bills (Civil War)
•Interstate Commerce Act of 1887
•Dawes Act
•Anti-tariff
Key issue is tariffGrover ClevelandBenjamin HarrisonElectoral votes vs popular votes
Billion-dollar Congress (Repubs have both houses)Sherman Anti-trust Act (1890)McKinley Tariff (1890)Civil War Pension increasesSherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
Election of 1888
• Oliver Kelly
• First organized 1870s in the Midwest, the south, and Texas
• Cooperative associations
• Social &educational components
• Succeeded in lobbying for “Granger Laws.”
• Rapidly declined by late 1870s
The Grange
Social Darwinism
Gospel of Wealth
Horatio Alger myths
OR
• Gov’t should shape econ/society or else – Caesar’s
Column
• Henry George
• Laurence Gronlund
• Edward Bellamy
New Theories
Mostly failures – seen as threat to liberty of contract
Middle class viewed unions as troublemakers/radicals/ foreigners
“Molly Maguires” – seen as violent intimidators Great Railroad Strike (1877) -1st major nat’l
labor conflictRioted, destroyed equip.Militias called outConflicts no longer local issuesWorkers frustrated w/management & gov’t’s
protectionsFragility of unions
Early Union Attempts
Knights of Labor – Terrance PowderlyAccepted almost everybodyBroad themed philosophical goalsTemporarily popular &
then disbanded
American Federation of Labor – Samuel GompersLimited membershipSkilled craftsmenAllowed women to reduce
wage threatWages & conditions primary
concerns
Haymarket Square (1886 – Chicago)- public meeting re:8hr day – bomb thrown/police killedSymbol of social chaos, radicalism & anarchy
Homestead Strike (1892 – Pittsburgh)Wage cuts w/out collective bargainingBrought in Pinkertons & then militia to protect
“scab”workersPublic opinion anti union Setback in steel industry union movement till 1930s
Pullman Strike (1894 – Chicago)Wages cut but no rent cuts in company townEugene Debs leads call for walk off & boycottOwners link pullmans to mail cars so fed. court
issues injunction (supported by Cleveland) & Debs jailed
Strike folds
Protests & Strikes
Wages not keeping up w/COL
Lost legislative challenges
Strikes ineffective
Unions represented small % of workers
Women, unskilled, minorities, immigrants
Ethnic/racial/language barriers
Shifting/transient workforce
Belief in next generation moving to
management
Why organized labor didn’t work…yet
• Begun in the late 1880s (Texas first – the Southern Alliance; then in the Midwest—the Northern Alliance).
• Built upon the ashes of the Grange
• More political and less social than Grange
• Ran candidates for office.
• Controlled 8 state legislatures & had 47 representatives in Congress during the 1890s.
Farmers’ Alliances
James Weaver
Small, low-tech farmers, sharecroppers & tenant
farmers
“raise less corn & more hell”
–Mary Lease
Did ok in pres. election but very well in st. & nat’l
legislative contests
“Challenge to the brutal & chaotic
way the economy was developing”
People’s Party - Populists
1. System of “sub-treasuries.”
2. Abolition of the National Bank.
3. Direct election of Senators.
4. Govt. ownership of RRs, telephone & telegraph companies.
5. Government-operated postal savings banks.
6. Restriction of undesirable immigration.
7. 8-hour work day for government employees.
8. Abolition of the Pinkerton detective agency.
9. Australian secret ballot.
10.Re-monitization of silver.
11.A single term for President & Vice President
Omaha Platform
Conservative Cleveland reelectedStock market crash (b/c big corp
bankruptcies)Bank failuresTightening of creditFledgling comps. fail Skyrocketing unemploymentMitigating factors
Depressed crop pricesEuro. depression = loss of mkts
Less Euro gold in US
Panic 1893
“A petition with boots”
Jacob Coxey & his “Army of the Commonweal of Christ.”
March on Washington “hayseed socialists!”
Historically bi-metal
1870s changed
Mint ratio 16:1
Market ration
1873 Congress discontinues silver coinage
Crime of ’73
Free silver movement
Silver Question
Wm McKinley (Repub, Ohio) oppose silver
coinage
Mts & plains state delegates go over to Dems
Wm Jennings Bryan (Dem, Nebraska)
South & west delegates incorp. Populist ideas –
free silver
“Cross of Gold” speech sways convention
Populists no other choice so “fuse” w/Dems
Election 1896
You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold!
McKinley (w/Hanna direction & $) followed tradition“front porch” campaign
Bryan did opposite – lot less $ & a lot more movement
Campaign of 1896
• Focus on silver undermined efforts to build bridges to urban voters
• Did not form alliances with other groups
• During end of campaign – rising wheat prices
• McKinley’s campaign was well- organized and highly funded.
• Seen by many as a demagogue
• Campaign seen as undignified • Presidential candidates “stood” for office
rather than “running” for it
Why Did Bryan Lose?
Gold Triumphs Over Silver•1900 Gold Standard Act
• confirmed the nation’s commitment to the gold standard.
• A victory for the
forces of conservatism
End of stalemate & stagnation of Gilded ageBegan era of Repub. dominance of presidency
& CongressRepubs – party of “free soil, free labor & free
men” now business, industry & strong nat’l gov’t
Urban dominanceBeginnings of modern politicsDemise of Populists
Significance of 1896 Election
• The economy experienced rapid change.
• The era of small producers and farmers was fading away.
• Race divided the Populist Party, especially in the South.
• The Populists were not able to breakexisting party loyalties.
• Most of their agenda was co-opted bythe Democratic Party
Why Did Populism Decline?